Rodriguez, the 1999 American League MVP and one of the greatest defensive catchers in baseball history, will then be honored in a pregame ceremony at Rangers Ballpark before the Rangers-Yankees game at 7:05 p.m. ET (ESPN). He’ll throw out the first pitch before the opener of the three-game series.

Rated by the Dallas Morning News as the second-best player in franchise history, behind only Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan, Rodriguez is the most-decorated player in Rangers history.

He won 13 Gold Gloves, 10 while playing for the Rangers. He debuted at age 19 in 1991, and in 1992 began a string of 10 consecutive seasons as an All-Star and Gold Glove winner.

Rodriguez's best season was in 1999, when he hit .332 with 35 home runs and 113 RBIs as the Rangers won their third AL West title in four years. He signed as a free agent with the Florida Marlins in 2003 and won his only world championship that season before moving on to the Detroit Tigers.

He returned to the Rangers in August 2009 for their stretch run after a trade with the Houston Astros. Rodriguez played his 21st and final season last year with the Washington Nationals, and will be appear on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time in 2017.

If there is one thing that could keep Rodriguez from being elected to the Hall by the Baseball Writers Association of America, it is his connection to a Rangers team whose members—including Rafael Palmeiro, Jose Canseco and others—have been connected directly to performance enhancing drugs.

Canseco has alleged that he injected Rodriguez with steroids. However, Rodriguez’s name was not in the Mitchell Report, which is the defining study on naming names in baseball’s steroids era.

Rodriguez, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, had hoped to continue playing this season, but no opportunity developed. Four teams expressed interested in him, and he had hoped, at the least, to agree to a minor-league deal with an invitation to major-league spring training with the Rangers, the newspaper reported, citing an unidentified source.

Now, he will retire with 2,844 hits, 311 homers and a .296 average.

His next goal, according to the Star-Telegram, could be to land a position with the Rangers in some capacity.

The team has added Greg Maddux, another shoo-in for the Hall of Fame, and Tony Fernandez as special assistants to general manager Jon Daniels.

In the near-term, at least, it might be difficult for the Rangers to find a spot on their field staff for Rodriguez. According to the Star-Telegram, the team is pleased with the work done by Hector Ortiz, who is in his seventh year with the club and his first year as minor league catching instructor.